Why is this work relevant for Direct?

As a relatively unknown brand in the premium smartphone space, Huawei wanted to begin a relationship with photography lovers across Europe with a mass consumer participation campaign that would go further than simply creating awareness. Huawei needed data and permission to talk directly to its audience in the future.

Background

Huawei had just launched it’s P20 Pro, a smartphone powered by Artificial Intelligence and packed full of innovation into a category that was beginning to lack any.
The mass majority of consumers only upgrade their phones when they come to the end of their mobile contract, so we wanted a campaign that would sustain interest over many months and prove the benefits of AI in mobile photography. The trouble for Huawei was that Apple’s iPhone owned smartphone photography following its incredible ‘Shot on an iPhone’ campaign. So we needed to disrupt our audience and start a meaningful relationship.

Describe the creative idea

The World’s first photography competition judged by a phone.
The war in smartphones is fought in photography, dominated by bigger brands. So, to get the AI-powered Huawei P20 Pro noticed by our photo-loving audience we decided not show a single one of its photos, we got it to judge everyone else’s instead.

Describe the strategy

Rather than persuade the audience to pick up a P20 Pro, we allowed them to experience
its superiority through their current smartphones – inviting them to get their best photos judged by the P20 Pro’s AI through social media, for the chance to win a P20 photography masterclass in Florence.

Describe the execution

Using 4 million professional images we trained the P20 Pro’s AI to judge the beauty
of any photo. We then needed a way to deliver the campaign at scale to our audience, allowing individual image rating, moderating and responses in real time. So we created a Chatbot delivered through Facebook Messenger allowing the AI to speak for itself, offer advice, walk people through how to enter, and to share their results.
To target Europe’s photo-loving community, we teamed up with 63 influencers across 10 markets who participated themselves and invited their audiences to take part too, while targeted ads were placed in people’s Instagram and Facebook feeds.
Through our chatbot, influencers and direct comms, we set 5 challenges over an 8 week period through July and August 2018 and sustained interest – creating an ongoing relationship with a new, warm community.